With the advent of Digital Audio Workstations and home studios, more monitoring loudspeakers find their tails hooked up to a PC at some point. A perfect excuse to see and hear the legendary engineer and his creations.

On a hot-and-frying Singapore afternoon, yours truly gulped down a quick lunch with fellow writer darKHell before the two of us boarded a cab for 12A Jalan Ampas. Greeted by an unassuming Balestier Warehouse (with bad lift at that), we proceeded to Resonance Audio, the “official venue” for Billy Woodman (Founder & Technical Director for ATC Loudspeaker Technology Ltd) to hold his seminar on monitoring loudspeakers here on the sunny island.

The event was slated to start at 1400h UTC+08:00, but there was time no doubt, to snap some pictures.

The crowd of thirty-odd was a hush bunch, so organisers offered drinks to loosen the thirsty tongues. This brought a slight chatter of intellectual exchange before Billy Woodman arrived.

This is the largish hall, where two pairs of ATC’s active monitors would be demonstrated during the talk. The smaller model on the inside is the SCM16A, while the larger pair on the outside is the the SCM20ASL PRO. The setup has been in play for about two weeks prior to demonstration, to aid with breaking in of the monitors.

Music playback was achieved by a Mac tethered to a Native Instruments USB interface and a Monitor Station.

No fancy supports, pucks, balls, spikes, et al. This is the Native Instruments AUDIO KONTROL 1 sitting on the lower tier of a glass side table.

Monitor switching was achieved by a PreSonus Monitor Station. No fancy “audiophile” preamplifier in sight.

The ATC active monitors were driven via balanced lengths of line-level interconnects. Standard wiring seen on IEC and Cannon inputs. Again, no platinum-plated-gazillion-nines-gold-conductors-encased-in-nuclear-irradiated-biocellulose-dielectic-suspended-within-fengshui-certified-geometric-yin-yang-balancing-arrangement.